Best Fish & Chips

Scotty Simpson’s Fish & Chips

Staff Pick, Readers' Choice

There are some people who go to Scotty’s for the fish, the hand-sliced potatoes and onions, and hand-shredded cabbage for the coleslaw. Sure, they enjoy the tartar sauce and a ketchup-enriched shrimp sauce made by hand. But a lot of them go for the memories. You see, Scotty’s is located in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood, which was once thickly planted with Southern-born auto workers, nowadays a poster child for disinvestment and decay. But Scotty’s remains stubbornly implanted on Fenkell, impervious to change, looking very much like a 1960s diner. Oh, there are touches that scream “family-owned business,” such as the motley collection of about 200 lighthouses kept on display, or the back room with its taxidermied fish, and portraits of roiling, dark seas or of upright and erect clipper ships. Meals come complete with a “joke of the day,” usually a giggle-inducing shaggy-dog story. A warning before you set out for the land of lighthouses: Scotty’s is closed Sundays and Mondays and only accepts cash. —Michael Jackman